I carry waterproof matches, a butane lighter, and a ferro rod. I always have an old 35mm film can with dryer lint and vasoline in my kit as well. It depends on how much of a hurry I am in starting my fire. Out west (CA anyway) you can't have open fires in most back country so I use a stove. Most of the time my ferro rod and dryer lint/cotton ball is faster than matches. I think it is smart to know and have several different methods to make fire and then have fun with it.

I use a lighter but also have the Mora knife with the striker in the handle. Usually light some kind of foliage that burns well like pine cones or dry grass. I also bring cotton balls soaked in wax as an emergency starter. They burn much longer than Vaseline ones and not as messy. I've also used dryer lint but found a cotton ball burns better unless you do a load with no synthetics. We have dogs that shed like crazy, too, so I'm sure there's a fair amount of that in the lint trap that doesn't help.

For people looking for multi-use items, Fritos corn chips make a great fire starter (just don't eat them all up prior to needing them to start a fire). They are easy to light and take a while to burn up-unlike dryer lint. However, hey will need a sustained flame to get started, so you will need some additional tinder if you are only using a striker to generate sparks. I carry two mini Bic lighters (one in my cook kit and one in my emergency bag) as well as Fire Steel striker.

Polkster13 wrote:For people looking for multi-use items, Fritos corn chips make a great fire starter (just don't eat them all up prior to needing them to start a fire). They are easy to light and take a while to burn up-unlike dryer lint. However, hey will need a sustained flame to get started, so you will need some additional tinder if you are only using a striker to generate sparks. I carry two mini Bic lighters (one in my cook kit and one in my emergency bag) as well as Fire Steel striker.

I've done the chip thing a few times. If the bag is sealed no matter how soaked your gear or wood is they are totally dry and light right away. The frito scoops and Tostitos bowls are nice because you can put your other tinder in the bowl off the dampness and light the chip.

Once my friends and I lit a fire using a bag of Doritos where they had two flavored per bag (buffalo and cool ranch I'm pretty sure). The ranch burned with a greenish flame and the buffalo burned orange.... Crazy.

I haven't tried the Doritos. From my Chemistry classes, the colors exhibited while burning indicate metal ions or chemicals that have metal ions in their makeup. Green is usually indicative of either Copper or Boron. Orange is usually Calcium, Iron or Sodium. Probably Sodium as there is a lot of salt in these chips. The main reason these burn so well is the oil contained in them. Since oil and water don't mix and the oil is not washed away by water, they will still burn even when wet.

My method of choice for right now is my ferro rod and cotton balls coated in Vaseline mixed with magnesium shavings. We use 17lb pure mg bars at my work to alloy aluminum and often have to cut them down. Every so often i fill a sandwich bag with the shavings off the saw. Always made me popular at my sons cub scout campouts when i would use a pinch of mag dust in a campfire. I also carry a lighter and have some wax coated waterproof matches in my first aid kit.
I've used dryer lint/ mag dust in the past, and it worked, but prefer the cotton balls in Vaseline.
I keep telling myself I'm going to mix dryer lint, sawdust, and mag dust then pour perafin wax over it and add a wick to make some super fire starters, but never taken the time to do it. I have or can easily get all the ingredients but just never gotten around to it.

" No sympathy for the devil. You buy the ticket, you take the ride", Hunter S. Thompson

Tinkered with many ways to start a fire from lint, cotton balls, corn chips, pine knot shavings, regular shavings, dry moss etc. Starting it with Ferro rod, battery, bic & matches. All good to learn. Had no interest to learn the drill method.

Settled on carrying Ferro rod & waterproof matches. For tender I use the bbq starters from wally world (charbroil I think) @ around $3 for 24. Cut each one in 1/4 for a total of 72 easy fires. If anything happens to matches or striking surface, a couple drops of liquid fuel on the fire starter & use the ferro. Everything else is sourced on site.

SGT Rock wrote:One I learned from HOI a few years back and has been my goto starter for years now is toilet paper and olive oil. I always have toilet paper and I always have olive oil so no special stuff to pack.

I gave this one a try based on a situation I was in. Multi day trip, supplies getting low, happened to remember this post. Worked great. I've used it about 10 times since and it's continued to work great. In the past I used cotton balls soaked in petroleum jelly and they worked well but this is easier. I'm going to stick with it the next few months to see how it goes. Every day I get a little older and these little adjustments help my pack to get a little lighter. This one isn't even a compromise, it works well.